Picture sharpening settings - why?

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Ari

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Just bought a Nikon D600 and having a fiddle with the menus. Now it seems to me that the reason people buy as good a camera and/or lens as they can is to get sharp images. When people are complementing a particular lens for instance, they'll often refer to it as "tack sharp".

That being the case, why does the standard setting in "picture control" have the sharpness set at 3 on a scale of 0-9? I could understand the desire for a little blur or smudge in portrait photos, but surely the idea normally is to reduce blur (be it focus or motion) to a minimum?

What would happen if I cranked it up to 9 for instance, would the pictures look wrong because they're too sharp?

Obviously Nikon know way more about this stuff than I do, so they must have it right defaulting to 3, I just don't understand why.

Appreciate any advice on this.
 
All images will need some sort of sharpening. The sharpening setting in your camera is only relevant if you are shooting in jpg format. This will not be applied to RAW files and you will need to do this in post.

Some people will simply print photos without any form of post processing or for example a sports photographer for a newspaper will shoot jpg so they can quickly sent shots to the office for printing etc. in these cases sharpening is applied by the camera.

Yes setting the sharpening to 9 will probably not look so great.
 
Adding sharpening too excessively looks like hell, that's why. 9 isn't as sharp as the lens can be, and everything lower is blurring it... it's the other way around. 9 is excessively sharpened, and 0 is as the lens produced it.

Besides... you shooting RAW? If so, it makes no difference. RAW files have no processing added whatsoever. That setting will only effect JPEG and TIFF.
 
To add to what Elliott said, in front of your sensor, Nikon put an AA filter, this is to reduce moire patterning in images (remember stripey ties on TV when you were a kid).

The downside is that the filter softens images, so your images will need sharpening in camera if you shoot JPEG, or in post if you shoot Raw.
 
Jpeg I'm afraid. Heathen I know! :)

So just leave well alone then we think?
 
Ari said:
So just leave well alone then we think?
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Just see how the images look. If you're not too sure whether or not they're looking as sharp as could be expected then post some examples here and someone will be able to advise you on where to go/what to try from there. :)

One thing though, once you oversharpen an image you can't recover it but you can sharpen a slightly soft one so it would definitely be best to start at a lower setting.
 
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What is better, to sharpen the shot by using a camera setting or to sharpen the shot using software on computer?

It is quicker to set sharpness on camera once a satisfactory level is found but is this a bad idea quality wise?
 
ernesto said:
What is better, to sharpen the shot by using a camera setting or to sharpen the shot using software on computer?

It is quicker to set sharpness on camera once a satisfactory level is found but is this a bad idea quality wise?
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Better to sharpen on the computer you can use better algorithms and be selective.
 
Ari said:
Jpeg I'm afraid. Heathen I know! :)

So just leave well alone then we think?
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Tune it for your requirements, I used to up it slightly for landscapes on my 30D when I shot raw+jpeg.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Tune it for your requirements, I used to up it slightly for landscapes on my 30D when I shot raw+jpeg.
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This was my understanding for the inclusion of in camera sharpness control.

As Phil v said 'digital cameras have an Anti Aliasing filter fitted in front of the sensor' therefore all images are inherently soft.

If you are shooting landscapes you may wish to increase sharpness, whereas for certain images (portraits for example) decreasing sharpness may be preferable.
 
ernesto said:
What is better, to sharpen the shot by using a camera setting or to sharpen the shot using software on computer?

It is quicker to set sharpness on camera once a satisfactory level is found but is this a bad idea quality wise?
Click to expand...

If you sharpen in the camera the same amount of sharpening will be applied to each shot. Not always a good idea...
 
Problem there is that you're judging the sharpness on a two-inch screen on the back of the camera. Something that looks right at that size can turn out to be waaaaay off when you get it up on a decent screen.
 
I was really talking about differences in quality, does computer software do a better job of sharpening that a camera would or would it make no difference.

For example if I was happy with the same level of sharpening across all my shots would I see a difference between setting it in camera or altering on computer?

Only one way to find out I suppose, I had better test it out.
 
There are quite a few different sharpening methods - unsharp mask, high pass filter, lab, etc - so again, it depends on the shot and the effect you're after. For instance, a portrait of a bride may be given a bit of flattering wrinkle-softening, a car may look better with sharp edges and so forth.

Also bear in mind that a small version of an image picture - for web use, say - will need a different amount of sharpening to the same picture printed as an A2.

And a bride getting out of a car may need different sharpening on different bits of the same shot...

Sharpening is like every other essential part of photography; it needs study and practice. You can use auto settings, but then you can use the 'P' setting on your camera if you want.
 
Sharpening is the last thing you do for output not capture

It then needs to be appropriate to the size of print or image onscreen, what is right for one may well look crap on another

'Sharpening' itself is merely how the pixels have edge contrast applied and has nothing to do with the lens or sensor quality

And as others have said there are many times when different areas of an image require different amounts of sharpening, so shoot raw anyway, and apply in post :)

Dave
 
It's all helpful. However now I can't understand why the camera has the adjustment in the sub menus in the first place if the best advice is leave well alone...
 
Ari said:
It's all helpful. However now I can't understand why the camera has the adjustment in the sub menus in the first place if the best advice is leave well alone...
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Its a jpeg setting, and sometimes you are perfectly fine to shoot in jpeg and get the image straight to where it needs to be - i.e. newspaper editor, to print or sell as a file at an event, etc. - so speed and lack of additional processing makes it useful

If you only shoot raw then its pointless, just like lots of other settings on a camera when you don't need them :)

Dave
 
Because on some occasions it's better than nothing. For instance, when shooting for immediate publication - sports, events, some press work - there simply isn't time to do screen editing, so then using jpeg + in-camera sharpening is your only choice. But you will nearly always get a better result by sitting down in front of a big screen and working on a RAW file.

Edit to add: Dave & I seem to be channelling each other. But it seems we both know what we're talking about! :lol:
 
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It always seems a bit odd to me that we spend upwards of two/three thousand squids on a camera body, and maybe one/two thousand on a decent lens then the final sharpness of a picture depends on how far you shove a couple of sliders.
Cheers Keith
 
courtany said:
It always seems a bit odd to me that we spend upwards of two/three thousand squids on a camera body, and maybe one/two thousand on a decent lens then the final sharpness of a picture depends on how far you shove a couple of sliders.
Cheers Keith
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But it isn't.
A lesser sensor in flat light with a crap lens will give you an image with very little edge definition. Shoving a couple of sliders won't rescue it.

A great sensor in nice punchy light with a sharp lens, will give you a sharp image, that you might need to improve by shoving a few sliders.

And all points in between. See the sliders are only a small part of the whole.

Back to the point about processing being an important part of the whole story, but it's not the lead character.
 
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